by the International Center of Bethlehem © 2001
Siham
Bethlehem’s Crèche of The Holy Family is an orphanage run by Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul. The orphanage, which about 50 children call home, is the home of a little three-year old girl named Siham. The orphanage, along with the maternity hospital adjacent to it, has been caught in the middle of some of the worst shooting and bombing in Bethlehem for more than a week. Miraculously, no one was physically hurt. To calm the children down, the sisters and the care takers kept telling them that the noise is from a wedding, the Sharon-Arafat wedding. Yet, two days later they told them that it was war.
When we saw Siham she was playing on the terrace of the
orphanage with a large group of children, all of who were between 3 to 6
years old. Most of them were playing around a puddle of water left by the
morning rain. The children were so excited to be out, since it was the
first day that they could get out of their shelter to play. When Siham saw us, she ran excitedly towards us saying:
Feel
my hair. It is wet from the rain.
Other children lined up so that we can feel their hair also.
View out of a window of St. Vincent guesthouse towards the Qarra'a building, which burnt for hours in the night of 22 October. The fire brigade could not reach the area because of heavy shooting. To the left the church, behind it the orphanage.
You
know, we found a bullet this morning when we came here to play.
Do you know where this a bullet came from? I asked her.
Yes,
it is from the war, there were many bullets around. They were red and they
were flying in the sky everywhere.
As Siham started climbing up the steps of the colorful slide that we were
standing by she said:
The sound was very loud.
She climbed another step and continued:
The soldiers were shooting all the time.
reporter: Nuha Khoury,
photos: Sandra Olwine
webmaster: Andreas F. Kuntz